As a professional wedding photographer with 31 years of experience, my wife and I added our photo booth 3 ½ years ago to give our brides and grooms an option to have their wedding photographers provide a new alternative for a party favor and fun. As a very active member of the Professional Photographers of America I am well aware of the legal pitfalls that can befall any wedding or event professional - knowing what to watch out for and preparing for the possibility is always a good business practice.
1. Use a binding, legal contract
Having a good contract written by a lawyer in your state is the first line of defense. It will not prevent you from being sued, but it might help you win. The most important part of it is having a section that says you will do your due diligence to prevent anything from going wrong, but if something does happen, you will not be held liable to anything more than a refund of moneys paid. Be aware though that due diligence does mean having backup equipment and basic troubleshooting experience in case you need it.
2. Buy insurance
The other important part is insurance. More and more venues are requiring insurance from the vendors as a means to protect themselves from lawsuits. There are several types of insurance; liability, equipment and indemnity. We have all three.
- Liability would be if someone tripped over our equipment and hurt themselves. This is the type of insurance most venues require and it is usually $1,000,000 per occurrence, $2,000,000 aggregate. Check with your insurance agent as doubling the insurance is relatively inexpensive and is well worthwhile.
- Equipment covers equipment that is lost, broken or stolen. We have replacement cost through a commercial inland marine policy. It is more expensive but we list the replacement cost of all equipment to our insurance company. If anything happens we receive the amount needed to actually replace the equipment; not just cover its current value. It is more expensive but a $3,000 camera can quickly become worth $1,000, which would mean to replace it we would have to pay another $2,000.
- The last is indemnity. We have ours through PPA. It covers our business if something happens like a CF or SD card fails and we lose part of the wedding photographs. Our indemnity insurance would cover us for the loss and any expenses to defend ourselves as long as we have done our due diligence.
3. Pay your taxes
The last bit of advice is regarding taxes and legal. Our business is an S Corp in the state of Texas. We followed the separate advice of our lawyer and CPA in choosing it over a LLC or other options. It helps protect us personally by making our company a separate entity that is held liable and not my wife and I personally. We have a EIN (employee identification number) through the US government and we have a Texas tax ID number and remit our taxes and fees to the State and all other authorities. Nothing can close a business down faster than not paying taxes, workers comp, etc. These are my opinions based on my knowledge of the subjects. Check with your State’s comptroller office, a CPA and a lawyer to get all the legalities of your state, federal and local responsibilities.
If you have any questions or your own advice or reconditions please comment below. Thanks!
